Just joined the gang-- my 950/7100 is slated to arrive in the next few days and AM I EXCITED!!! I was an old Mac owner-- a C-37, some 2255's and a pair of ML-2 speakers (my wife loved 'em- made GREAT end-tables. About 9 years ago, with the move to a new house that had a built in entertainment area and kids and no dedicated room for the stereo, I cashed it in for low-fi (can't even talk much about this music-reproduction time of my life on orders from my HIFI therapist). Now don't get me wrong---- I would trade my kids for anything but raising kids ain't cheap. All I could do is drool over reviews and ads and stores-- everything was VERY EXPENSIVE as I remembered from the golden days of McIntosh. Then along comes an ad about some weird audio place called "Outlaw"? I investigated, expecting to dicover that I had found another so called "inexpensive" audio dealer where "inexpensive" meant under $30,000. Was I SHOCKED!! I was so excited that I blabbed to my wife about this. This is not a wise thing to do-- she is quite thrifty. So I explained that all I would like is just the 950/770 combo--oops that too much?? Well how about the 950/7100 instead and ON SALE!!!! Those were the magic words for my cute little DUTCH honey and here I am today. This should also have the added benefit of decreasing my therapy sessions. I accidently found this BB and have been reading it ALOT. What a hoot!! Totally enjoy it.

By the by-- what about those rear surrounds for a 7.1 system? Is it O.K. to use bipole/ dipole's like the side surrounds or what?? In my situation, I have a log room with my main listening spot6 feet from the rear of the room. The rear "wall" behind me is the stairwell leading up stairs which means that the rears will probably have to be suspended from the ceiling. I would appreciate some of your ideas.

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